Chapter I: Front Matter

TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE.

The original print of this book uses Helmholtz pitch notation,
where middle-C is represented by a lowercase c with one over-line,
the C above with two over-lines, etc. For accessibility, I have
used the alternative convention of using numbers after the note
name, thus:

C₁ ... C ... c d e f g a b c¹ d¹ e¹ f¹ g¹ a¹ b¹ c² ... c³ ... c⁴

(C₁ = 3 octaves below middle-C, c⁴ = 3 octaves above middle-C)

A few corrections have been made to spelling and punctuation.
A list of these amendments can be found at the end of the text.

THE VOICE IN SINGING

TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN OF

EMMA SEILER

Member of the American Philosophical Society

A NEW EDITION
REVISED AND ENLARGED

PHILADELPHIA
J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO
1879

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by
J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO.,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.

Lippincott's Press,
Philadelphia.

CONTENTS

PAGE
Translator's Preface 7

Introduction 11

I Vocal Music 15

II Physiological 36

III Physical 85

IV Æsthetic 143

Appendix 185

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE

The translator of this book, desirous, in common with other friends of its author, that her claims as a lady of rare scientific attainments should be recognized in this country, where she has recently taken up her abode, has obtained her consent to the publication of the following testimonials to her position in her own country from gentlemen of the highest eminence in science:

[TRANSLATED]

Mad. Emma Seiler has dwelt for a long time here in Heidelberg,
and given instruction in singing. She has won the reputation
of a very careful, skilled and learned teacher, possessing
a fine ear and cultivated taste. While engaged on my book,
“Die Lehre von den Tonempfindungen, &c.,” I had the honor of
becoming acquainted with Mad. Seiler, and of being assisted by
her in my essay upon the formation of the vowel tones and the
registers of the female voice. I have thus had an opportunity
of knowing the delicacy of her musical ear and her ability to
master the more difficult and abstract parts of the theory of
music.

I have pleasure in bearing this testimony to her worth, in the
hope of securing for her the confidence and the encouragement
of those who are interested in the scientific culture of music,
and who know how desirable it is that an instructress in the
art of singing should be possessed of scientific knowledge,
a fine ear, and a cultivated taste.

(Signed) Dr. H. Helmholtz,

Prof. of Physiology, Member of the Academies and
Royal Societies of London, Edinburgh, Amsterdam,
Stockholm, Berlin, Vienna, Munich, Göttingen.

Heidelberg, Aug. 5, 1866

[TRANSLATED]

Mad. E. Seiler has made for herself an honorable name in Germany,
not only as a practical teacher of singing, but also by her
valuable investigations in regard to the culture of the musical
voice. By her own anatomical studies she has acquired a thorough
knowledge of the vocal organs, and by means of the laryngoscope has
advanced, in the way first trodden by Garcia, to the establishment
of the conditions of the formation of the voice. We owe to her
a more exact knowledge of the position of the larynx, and of its
parts in the production of the several registers of the human
voice; and she appears especially to have brought to a final and
satisfactory decision the much-vexed question respecting the
formation of the so-called _fistel tones_ (head tones). She has
been associated with the best powers possessed by Germany in the
department of the theory of music and physiological acoustics,
standing by the side of the celebrated physiologist, Helmholtz,
while he was engaged in his physiologico-acoustic work upon the
generation of the vowels and the nature of harmony.

(Signed) E. du Bois-Reymond,

Professor of Physiology in the Royal University of Berlin.

Berlin, July 17, 1866

In a letter, written in English, addressed to the President and Members of the American Philosophical Society, Professor du Bois-Reymond introduces Mrs. Seiler (italicizing the words) “_as a lady of truly remarkable scientific attainments_.” “Prompted,” he states, “by a spirit of philosophical inquiry, not frequently met with in her sex, she has made herself entirely acquainted with all the facts and theories concerning the production of the human voice. She has entered, deeper probably than any one else before her, into the study of the problem of the different registers of the human voice. Most of her results she has published in a pamphlet under the title: Altes und Neues über die Ausbildung des Gesangorganes (Leipzig, 1861), which has received the approbation of both the physiologists and the singing masters of this country.”

* * * * *

The translator takes the opportunity to state that, as he makes no pretensions to any knowledge either of the science or of the art of music, his translation has been carefully revised by persons entirely competent to correct its musical phraseology.

W. H. F.

Philadelphia, December, 1867.